1. Andrew Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany in 1930 to a Jewish family. He fled Nazi Germany as a boy with his family and came to Britain as refugees. 2. He is best known for playing Manuel in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. His character Manuel was the abused waiter at the fictional Fawlty Towers hotel. 3. During the filming of Fawlty Towers, Andrew Sachs was occasionally subjected to real physical abuse, such as being accidentally hit on the head with a frying pan by John Cleese during filming.

1. LISTENING COMPREHENSION  STUDENT A
ANDREW SACHS
MANUEL
(BERLIN, 7 APRIL 1930)
FROM BBC1, TELEVISION'S GREATEST HITS, MONDAY 13 JULY 1998.
Of Jewish heritage, he escaped Nazi Germany as a boy - after his
father, who had been arrested by the Nazis, was released just days
before the Kristallnacht.
There is a wax figure of him as Manuel from Fawlty Towers in
Madam Tussaud's in London.
FROM : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0755133/bio
.
1 Presenter: What is the shortest catch phrase ever heard on T.V. Now, you might think it is ‘stupid boy’, or ‘I
2 bet’. As you can tell, I’m not very good at impersonations but you may be wrong because the shortest ever is
3 ‘Que’. Television’s Greatest Hits looks at the legend that was Manuel.
4 He was the most abused waiter in the history of television. A human hunchback immortalised in just 12
5 episodes of a comedy classic. Nearly 2 decades on, we catch up with the man behind Manuel, actor Andrew
6 Sachs to learn what he made of the simple Spaniard.
7 Andrew Sachs : I'd love to have some of the qualities that Manuel possesses. Everybody feels sorry for him. I
8 think he's a bit of a hero, he's immensely loyal, he's hard-working, enthusiastic. His only fault he has, if he has
9 one, is lack of intelligence.
10 John Cleese : He's from Barcelona.
11 Narrator : No, not Barcelona but Berlin is where Andrew Sachs (1) (be) ____________________ born into a
12 Jewish family in 1930. Only 3 when Hitler (2 ) came to power, he (3) ( be) ____________________ 8 when
13 his family (4) fled Nazi Germany and (5) (arrive) ____________________ in Britain as refugees. German
14 speaking Andrew (6) had to learn English in a hurry.
15 Andrew Sachs : Learning a second language at that age I think gives you an added flexibility of tongue and
16 lips and kind of mouth patterns that stood me in very good stead and I've always done a lot of accents and
17 dialects of all kinds.
18 I speak English well, I learned it from a book.
19 So, thank you Mr Hitler for sending me here.
20 Narrator : After leaving school Andrew (7) (take) ____________________ to the stage, he (8) sharpened his
21 comic talent in rep and was playing London's West End when at the age of 45 he (9) (get)
22 ____________________ his big TV break. The man who'd fled one real tyrant was now to make his name
23 suffering at the hands of another. So, was it torture or was John Cleese really a pussycat in disguise?
24 Andrew Sachs : He's lovely, he's lovely to work with but yes, occasionally he is a bit harder than he would at
25 rehearsal. There is one occasion when he was supposed to have picked up a frying pan that had been padded
26 but he (10) picked up the original one. He (11) (whack) ____________________ me on the head with it and I
27 (12) thought as I (13) (go down), ____________________ I (14) thought, I'm glad this is the last shot of the
28 show because I can't get up again. That was not an invention of a sound engineer, that was a pan hitting my
29 head.
30 Narrator : After Fawlty Towers Andrew Sachs (15) (appear) ____________________ in sitcoms, dramas and
31 in countless commentaries. The man who was Manuel even (16) played Einstein. But it is for a dozen short
32 appearances in one Torquay hotel that he'll be best remembered.
33 Andrew Sachs : Fawlty Towers itself (17) (take) ____________________ all of 3 months of my working life
34 of coming up to half a century. So, it's nothing.
35 Narrator : Andrew Sachs still treasures Fawlty Tower's original scripts, as alive today as when they were first
36 screened.
37 Sybil slams the door on Basil. He says she’s mad and I’m there commiserating. Basil’s attention wanders to
38 Manuel. Basil picks up Manuel and smacks him on the head.
VIDEO FROM : http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/heavenandearth/guests.shtml